Beck Center presents reworked 'Diary of Anne Frank'
By Art Thomas
happenings
Published Feb. 8, 2006

Heather Farr as Anne Frank and George Roth as her father, Otto Frank.

Though it was written a half century ago, the stage adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” remains a literate and powerful testament to the horrors of the Nazi influence. The Beck Center is presenting the Wendy Kesselman adaptation of the play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

By mid-1942, Hitler had invaded Amsterdam and Jews were forced to wear a large yellow Star of David to identify them. Deprived of recreation and libraries, and subject to ridicule, many Jewish families fled their homes and went into hiding.

The Frank family moved into the top of a warehouse building. Two dedicated employees smuggled them small amounts of food on a regular basis, and reading library books was the main activity during the day when the family had to keep still so workers would not hear them.

Otto and Edith Frank had 14-year-old Anne and older daughter Margot. Living with them were Mr. Frank’s business partner, his wife and their teenage son Peter. Later, even tough the space was already crowded; they took in a Jewish dentist, Mr. Duessel.

The Beck production makes the play come alive on stage and makes real the tensions of living in close quarters for almost two years.

Heather Farr is the multifaceted Anne. Impulsive, talkative, curious and insightful, Anne is the source of many of the tensions, and at times a peacekeeper as well. George Roth is well cast as Otto. Desperate to keep his extended family safe, Otto also recognizes his need to protect others.

Anne McEvoy is quiet mother Edith, and Magdalyn Donnelly makes the introspective daughter Margot an intriguing stage character.

Aaron Dore is the shy Peter who is about to enter manhood and Paula Duesing and Brian Bartels are his equally outgoing parents. Mark Cipra is dentist Mr. Duessel who arrives late in the production.

Director Sarah May keeps the cast moving constantly, and the inmates of the cramped quarters make us very aware of the close surroundings. Fixing meals, making beds, trying to read quietly in a place where there is no privacy. These are some of the monotonous daily activities in the attic. All of this makes the play fluid and kinetic.

The director has chosen to focus on the relationships shared by the sequestered families. We can not only see, but also believe in the increasing attraction between Ann and Peter. Similarly, the attraction for Mrs. Van Daan and her fur coat is at first a comic element and later a source of tension when the coat must be sold for money for food.

The emissaries from the “outside” world are Mr. Kraler and Miep Geis who bring food and limited news of the Nazi threat. Dawn Youngs and Bob McCoy fill these roles.

I am not fond of the extensive voice-overs in which Anne’s diary entries frame or introduce sequences.

The design team of set designer, Richard Gould, costume designer, Allison Garrigan, Jeff Lockshine on lighting and Richard Ingraham behind the sound, make a real and unified statement toward the production as a whole. Their work evokes the time and place of the story with realistic clarity.

The Beck Center has a wonderful display called “The Anne Frank Story.” Twelve tightly written boards highlight the events of Nazi occupied Amsterdam in general and the Frank family in particular. The boards, along with the moving production on stage, help to emphasize the reality of the story.

If written as fiction, “The Diary of Anne Frank” might be dismissed as too far-fetched. This stage adaptation, which includes scenes of the family at prayer, becomes doubly potent when reminded that it was all too real.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” runs through Feb. 26 at the Beck Center.